Saturday, November 3, 2012

When we started out, I thought we'd go through Boswell logo bags faster than we did. While everyone agreed that our size and shape were perfect for a book carrier, it's only three years later that we're selling down enough to consider reordering, and that's compared to multiple Boswell tee shirt orders per year. Excluding the artist tees, we've sold close to triple the tee basic tee shirts, compared to similarly priced totes.

I haven't decided what Boswell-branded tote we're going to bring in next, though our holiday-themed paper handled shopping bags should arrive as early as next week. In the meantime, I noticed that I've brought in a number of, as I call them, things in which you carry other things, and that's aside from our newest order of wooden boxes.

I decided to go back to Rich Frog for an assortment of tooth fairy pillows. This is our third order for this line, and this time we decided to go for a broader assortment, instead of fosusing on the more obvious girl tooth and boy tooth. So now we have monsters and puppies and owls and the link. I've also found that a kids' flashlight has no season, so we restocked up on their popular assortment. I'm sad to tell everyone that they are no longer making the beetle or the penguin, but we do have one cute penguin left from our last order. Note: we are heading into penguin season, just so you've marked your calendar.

And we're also heading into felted wool season, when we replace our cute Coelacanth change purses with the wool assortment from Benjamin. In addition to our popular change purses, this year I brought in some larger leaf-themed clutches. My apologies on the blurry photo. I'll switch it out when I'm back the book shop. (I'm recovering from a long week of events).

And finally, a trip to Powells reminded me that I had planned to bring back the Mighty Wallets which we carried two years ago--the item was strongly positioned in their Burnside location. It turned out that Ma Jolie was also selling them on the block, and I didn't feel comfortable competing with the geographically closed retailer to Boswell, aside from Starbucks. But MJ has moved onto to other products, leaving us a window to the world of tyvek. Now I know that several of you are making your wallets out of duct tape lately, but for those without the time or construction skills, the Mighty Wallet is another good option.

The good news is that the new packaging is sharp. The bad news is that the nice two-sided, semi-permanent display has been retired, replaced by this disturbingly delicate cardboard one. I don't think it will last long in the store, and it's a lot harder to place. Right now we have our assortment between the home area and the performing arts area on the right side of the store. I brought in several of the classic designs that sold quickly for us the first time around (air mail and explorer map) plus London underground, music score, cork, metal grid, a Japanese design, stamps, and of course "old wallet."